Tag Archives: stephan franck

Exclusive: Dive into Stephan Franck’s process behind Palomino Volume 6

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Endings are hard, but noir endings are murder. Cartoonist and award-nominated animator, writer, and director Stephan Franck and his company Dark Planet Comics are finally cracking the case in Palomino Volume 6. The ambitious, Ringo Award-Nominated series chronicles the lost culture of Los Angeles’ country music clubs and throws readers into a pulse-pounding, decades-spanning mystery. The series deftly blends hard boiled noir and Western aesthetics to explore Los Angeles’ weird and forgotten history with an unforgettable cast of working musicians, TV actors, stuntmen, cops, hustlers, and broken souls. The saga’s stunning swan song is now live on Kickstarter. 

A captivating neo-noir crime mystery, Palomino begins in 1981 Los Angeles, where readers meet Eddie Lang, an old-school, hardboiled former Burbank PD detective juggling his 6-nights-a-week gig in the Palomino house band, his P.I. business, and his teenage daughter, Liz–who might even be more hardboiled than he is! Father and daughter share a killer sense of humor and an unbreakable bond, but tragedy looms large over their past. A brand new case that’s hitting a little too close to home upends their lives, sending them each down very dangerous paths. Ultimately, the unsolved mystery haunts LIz into adulthood. In 1995, she’s working as a reporter when a routine assignment opens old wounds and Liz embarks on one final odyssey,  where every secret will be revealed and all scores settled. To survive the night, Liz must confront the ghosts of her past and, maybe – just maybe – emerge on the other side reborn and free.

We have an exclusive look at Stephan Franck’s process in creating Palomino Volume 6. Check it out and back the Kickstarter before it ends!

Crowdfunding Corner: Palomino Vol. 6 and Threat Quotient

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Welcome to our revamped “Crowdfunding Corner” rounding up some of the latest crowdfunding news. We’re going beyond just announcement projects, we’ll be tracking to make sure these projects get delivered as well as what we think the “risk” of backing them are.

We’ll be updating the format as we get a better handle of the needs of this sort of coverage, so stay tuned and check out the first round of projects!

Threat Quotient

Threat Quotient

Publisher: Virtual Pulp Press
Creative Team: Henry Brown
Launch Date: Funding Now – ends May 28 2026 4:00 PM EDT
Risk: Medium – While a lot of it is done, a first crowdfunding campaign is always risky and often misses its projected delivery date.

In Threat Quotient, a gripping narrative unfolds as a global uprising challenges the autocratic puppet states of the existing world order. Amidst this turmoil, a cosmic quake rips open dimensional portals, introducing disoriented visitors who exacerbate the ultrahuman and dissident crisis. Heroes like Ramjet, a turbo-powered flying knight, the unstoppable Juggernaut, and the truth-revealing Phantom Raider rise to confront the chaos. As the Pentagon assembles their own ultrahuman team to quell the rebellion, both the Establishment and Rebel factions are convinced they are on the right side of history. With no room for compromise, they converge on a small country teetering on the brink of civil war, setting the stage for an epic superpowered showdown.

Palomino Volume 6

Palomino Volume 6

Publisher: Dark Planet Comics
Creative Team: Stephan Franck
Launch Date: Funding Now – ends May 15 2026 2:59 AM EDT
Risk: Low – The publisher has run previous campaigns and delivered

Endings are hard, but noir endings are murder. Cartoonist and award-nominated animator, writer, and director Stephan Franck and his company Dark Planet Comics are finally cracking the case in PALOMINO Volume 6. The ambitious, Ringo Award-Nominated series chronicles the lost culture of Los Angeles’ country music clubs and throws readers into a pulse-pounding, decades-spanning mystery. The series deftly blends hard boiled noir and Western aesthetics to explore Los Angeles’ weird and forgotten history with an unforgettable cast of working musicians, TV actors, stuntmen, cops, hustlers, and broken souls.

A captivating neo-noir crime mystery, PALOMINO begins in 1981 Los Angeles, where readers meet EDDIE LANG, an old-school, hardboiled former Burbank PD detective juggling his 6-nights-a-week gig in the Palomino house band, his P.I. business, and his teenage daughter, Liz–who might even be more hardboiled than he is! Father and daughter share a killer sense of humor and an unbreakable bond, but tragedy looms large over their past. A brand new case that’s hitting a little too close to home upends their lives, sending them each down very dangerous paths. Ultimately, the unsolved mystery haunts LIz into adulthood. In 1995, she’s working as a reporter when a routine assignment opens old wounds and Liz embarks on one final odyssey,  where every secret will be revealed and all scores settled. To survive the night, Liz must confront the ghosts of her past and, maybe – just maybe – emerge on the other side reborn and free.

Exclusive: Stephan Franck Reveals the Cover Process to his Kickstarter Palomino

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The year is 1981. The American Century is running on fumes, but the end isn’t anywhere in sight. The cowboy is still America’s most central symbol—and from movies, to music, to the President himself, it all hails from Southern California. Welcome to Palomino, cartoonist Stephan Franck’s all-new neo-noir graphic novel series, set in the lost culture of Los Angeles’ country music clubs. 

The age of urban cowboys is in full swing. Cowboy hats and rhinestone suits are all the rage. Kenny Rogers “Lady” is Billboard’s number three song of the year. Dolly Parton is a national icon. And across LA, six nights a week, working musicians, TV actors, stuntmen, cops, hustlers, and broken souls all play their part in the cultural myth making. Most of them are just trying to survive—on the B-side of the City of Angels. 

The project by Franck and his company, Dark Planet Comics, has four days to go a Kickstarter campaign and is well over its goal. It’s the first part of a planned four-part graphic novel series. Palomino captures Los Angeles’ spirit, with hardboiled dialogue, honkytonk music, and details from the city’s weird and forgotten history. 

We have an exclusive first look at the cover to the graphic novel by Stephan Franck and the process of its creation.

Cartoonist Stephan Franck Launches Palomino on Kickstarter

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Palomino

The year is 1981. The American Century is running on fumes, but the end isn’t anywhere in sight. The cowboy is still America’s most central symbol—and from movies, to music, to the President himself, it all hails from Southern California. Welcome to Palomino, cartoonist Stephan Franck’s all new neo noir graphic novel series, set in the lost culture of Los Angeles’ country music clubs. 

The age of urban cowboys is in full swing. Cowboy hats and rhinestone suits are all the rage. Kenny Rogers “Lady” is Billboard’s number three song of the year. Dolly Parton is a national icon. And across LA, six nights a week, working musicians, TV actors, stuntmen, cops, hustlers, and broken souls all play their part in the cultural myth making. Most of them are just trying to survive—on the B-side of the City of Angels. 

Franck and his company, Dark Planet Comics, are launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund Palomino, the first part of a planned four-part graphic novel series. Palomino captures Los Angeles’ spirit, with hardboiled dialogue, honkytonk music, and details from the city’s weird and forgotten history. 

At the center of Palomino is a unique father-daughter relationship. Eddie Lang’s an ex-cop turned working musician with big dreams, but dreams don’t pay the rent. So Eddie reluctantly works as a private investigator to provide for his teenage daughter, Lisette. Eddie and Lisette share an unbreakable bond and a dry sense of humor. But they’re stuck. They’re haunted by a terrible loss and an unsolved crime that looms large over their lives. They’re running out of time to fix their family.  And just as things seem at a stalemate, a new murder case upends their lives.  

This is Palomino — where Farrah Fawcett hair reigns supreme, where Ronald Reagan is beginning his first term as President, and where LA’s hottest music spot is North Hollywood’s historic Palomino Club.

The Fourth Volume of Silver Comes to Kickstarter

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Stephan Franck has worked on some of the most beloved animated films of all time, including The Iron Giant, How to Train Your Dragon, and Despicable Me —and his passion for storytelling extends from the silver screen to comic books and graphic novels. Over the course of the last four years, Franck has been writing, illustrating and self publishing Silver, a globe-trotting graphic novel series that mashes up the world of Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula with action, adventure, humor, pulp storytelling and modern sensibilities. Told over the course of 4 volumes (and a stand alone novella), Franck has created an unforgettable cast and a compelling caper that picks up 30 years after Professor Abraham Van Helsing visited Dracula’s castle. Now Van Helsing’s descendent, the mysterious vampire hunter Rosalyn, is teaming up with a ragtag group of con men for a high stakes heist to rob Europe’s richest vampires. Will they succeed, and live off their take from this one last job? All will be revealed in the fourth and final volume of Silver, which Franck and his company Dark Planet Comics are funding via a Kickstarter campaign.

In Silver, a group of criminals discover the late Jonathan Harker’s secret ledger, which discloses the existence of an exotic treasure of silver hidden in Dracula’s castle. Finnigan, the group’s leader, knows a retirement plan when he sees it, so he’s willing to do whatever it takes to pull off the biggest heist of the last ten centuries—even if that means allying himself with the mysterious, sword-wielding vampire hunter Sledge, aka Rosalind Van Helsing.

Fans who back the new Kickstarter can get digital editions, all four trade paperbacks individually, a signed slipcase featuring forall four trade paperbacks, the acclaimed novella Rosalynd, an audiobook of Rosalynd and limited edition prints by or done in collaboration with three incredible artists: Marvel comics and Kickstarter sensation Takeshi Miyazawa, animator and bandes dessinées artist Rodolphe Guenoden, and superstar illustrator Mel Milton.

The Kickstarter runs until June 28th and the volume is slated for release October 2018.

Stephan Franck’s Silver Kickstarter Gets a Second Comic

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It’s been over 30 years since Professor Abraham Van Helsing visited Dracula’s castle. Now his descendent, the mysterious vampire hunter Rosalind Van Helsing, is teaming up with a ragtag group of con men for a high stakes heist to rob Europe’s richest vampires. Welcome to the world of Stephan Franck’s Silver, a globe-trotting graphic novel series that mashes up the world of Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula with action, adventure, humor, pulp storytelling and modern sensibilities.

Having previously funded the first two volumes of Silver via Kickstarter, Franck and his company Dark Planet Comics has about a week left in its Kickstarter campaign to fund the third volume of Silver and help bring the first two volumes to a wider audience.

Sometimes, a story just wants to be told. It doesn’t care if you have other plans or an already busy schedule. It burns its way through your psyche until you have no choice but to just let it out into the world. And thus, this Kickstarter adds a new wrinkle (or comic in reality), Rosalynd. The graphic novel is a 244-page Hard cover one-shot which dives deeper into the Silver Universe.

Rosalynd is meta fiction not only expanding Franck’s world but also reflecting his family and its history, “wandering Jews” from Bessarabia–the East just beyond the East that Bram Stoker writes about—who fled across Europe.

 

Rosalynd is available in a couple of ways.

  • As its own pledge level $22 – Rosalynd (HC)
  • Part of a new bundle pledge $57 – Rosalynd (HC) + Silver Vol 1,2 & 3 (TPB)
  • As and add-on at survey time: TO ADD ROSALYND TO AN EXISTING PLEDGE, INCREASE YOUR EXISTING PLEDGE BY 21.99$ AND SELECT ROSALYND AS AN ADD-ON AT SURVEY TIME (additional shipping will apply at survey time–$6 domestic, $25 international

And check out some images below!

 

 

 

Stephan Franck’s Silver Returns!

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It’s been over 30 years since Professor Abraham Van Helsing visited Dracula’s castle. Now his descendent, the mysterious vampire hunter Rosalind Van Helsing, is teaming up with a ragtag group of con men for a high stakes heist to rob Europe’s richest vampires. Welcome to the world of Stephan Franck’s Silver, a globe-trotting graphic novel series that mashes up the world of Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula with action, adventure, humor, pulp storytelling and modern sensibilities.

Having previously funded the first two volumes of Silver via Kickstarter, Franck and his company Dark Planet Comics are launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund the third volume of Silver and help bring the first two volumes to a wider audience.

In Silver, a group of cons discover the late Jonathan Harker’s secret ledger, which discloses the existence of an exotic treasure of silver hidden in Dracula’s castle. Finnigan, the group’s leader, may be ethically challenged, but he knows a retirement plan when he sees it. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to pull off the heist of the last ten centuries, even if it means allying with a beautiful, sword wielding vampire hunter…. who just happens to be a descendent of Van Helsing.

If funded through Kickstarter, pledges will be delivered to backers this fall. The Silver Volume 3 Kickstarter campaign is live as of July 10th and runs for 30 days.